The sun. [volume], July 12, 1914, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Page 5, Image 39

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
THE SUN, SUNDAY, JULY 12, 1914.
r
A
Y
TO
MAKER
Fo, Chllil. whose cheeks to-day
Show blossoms of the May,
If, In your December,
You shall remember
These 1 It tic Kewples iniule you cay,
Itcenll her gently too
Who once loved children too,
Anil childlike seemed for them,
Whii tlrcw nnil dre-uncd for them
Of little kindly things
With wings.
Miss O'Neill tolil the reporter thnt
It Is the easiest thins In the world to
make money If you only know how,
for the Kewples, with tinlf tlio effort
that she has put on her other work of
Illustrating, writing hooks and songa
and painting canvases, have brought
her ever so much more than she ever
expected to make she doesn't tell you
how much that was. Tcrhaps It's wise.
MAKE MONEY S
FROM MISSOURI
"After the Kewps began to go about
the country In the magazines ntul
books . Oil, how did they begin?"
the reporter ns.s.
"This way. I used to sign my Illus
trations, as most artists do, with n lit
tle personal mark beside the signature
which was In the form of ft citpld, and
little by little this ctipld from being n
nice, well set up, conventional Raphael
cherub, Fourteenth of F- bruary per
sonage, developed the most astonishing
changes In his anatomy, almost with
out my volition.
"One of my editors made a collection
of these elfish little sprites and one
day tent them to me with a request
that I evolve a permanent person out of
them. I did. I always do what editors
say. It's wiser and safer.
"In time from all over the country
I began to get letters from the kiddles.
They werp tired of cutting out Kew
ples, they wanted real Kewples that
they could hold and play with. I was
astonished at the number and the
earnestness of these requests. Then
commenced to come the letters from
the owners of toy factories, who arc
on the lookout all the time for some
thing to amuse the llttlo ones.
"Just think; at the present time there
are some thirty or forty factories In
Germany making these Kewples, turn
ing them out by the thousands, moulding
them, baking them, shipping them,
AYS THE ' LAUGH
Miss Rose O'Neill, Creator of the Kewpies, Who
Has Forty German Factories Making Her
Toys, Tells How She Succeeded
Says New Yorkers Need a Little
More of the Joy of Life
painting their faces, qulrllng their tufts,
clipping Ihelr wings, and the strange
part of It nil Is that not even that very
unpleasant process of manufacture Is
nblc for one moment to destroy the In
nate loveliness and the kindly humor of
the Kewple character. They rise su
perior to any such mundane Irritations.
They smiled at me Just as engagingly
from the crowded table, of the Teutonic
factory.
Yes, I visited all the factories which
arc situated In the toy province of the
(vtrythlng
be very si '
,'Ullnn "
American h
ut thu
OWll thin
Arriving
fri.m her M
step of flf'' '
illh her
Uprned -
nporter:
"What (1.
jrinnlnc n
rlndow'
ni'tileil In this dull old
f gray stnne and ugly
. .s a little more of the
t ' If e; New Yorkers have,
but they are getting to
i people and iTte old ac-
they are Inspired by
.i. r is losing Its force. At
apparently what Rose
ther day In New York
--"iiri ranch after an ab-
". numbs she took a walk
p.' sister, and this Is what
-he described It to a Sl'N
v it think I saw? Kewples
nc from, oh, a dozen shop
. 11, of course the least I
cguU do w i - til laugh back and then
people look' d atul the first I knew they
rjutf all Idiutung."
Having started the merry ball rolling,
Vlie Joy FH' r pursued her way and a llt
t!t remiAi l from the promenade of
tUhion.il' - die saw what at first view
ihtbellm I n bo a Kewple house with
nice, lit n. sandbank In front of It for
the Kew'j... to play In. Her slater,
ier.ed in nuiropolltan lore, explained
uat while 'In' municipality Just adored
tl.( Ktnp s there had not been made a
itSnlte impropriation for housing them
Hir.'P".y
H Ptsapp. ir. ed but not dismayed and
9 1... . l.ultaf tltit nil thn nllthnrl.
w neidid was a suggestion. Miss
i '.Will- s'ie Is the possessor of other
ejnw, ' ut she prefers this one for
'forking1 purposes took a nice, chubby
K(p from her vanity bag, stuck him
lutdown Irj the soft sand at the side of
the llttU' log cabin which was built to
ti'use the tools of the subway workers
-and went on her way rejoicing.
Passer!- ', tired by the day's work;
ixbltlous plodders with their feet on
ihr ground ond their heads In the
luudi, rn.lt. poor, men, women and chll.
urm. tnw the Kewple holding a llttlo
tt& a ri his dimpled hand and smil
ing at tin n w ith that mixture of humor
taad sympathetic understanding which
f Eark! tin Kewple face, and all at once
they liutthed, Some wuved u return
jrit-UEK iery one was gladder and
letter f.ir the foolish little person's ap
parante ,n the sandbank at the side of
the tln l. K idbln.
The Kewpie is to the human world
iat the T.-ddy bear Is to the four
fouled. It ,- the embodiment of fun and
Utallty ami good natured benevolence.
Is inspire respect even In cynical
grownup. It it the loglcul descendant
of the brownie of Palmer Cox fame,
having a uri .it many of the tempera
iftital n.i.ilitles but possessing
itralghtir 1 us.
"It bland.-, says Miss. O'Neill, "for
la, ordtr .iul simple dressing."
In the la-, -t book w hich describes the
Ings of K' wples and published toy the
Frtdrrlck. s -kes Company Miss O'Neill
In thf dedication:
Jo every ft. ', who'll look
Into thin
'live tin-,
'klllK in-
That chh.i
Tllth.it i
AM Hi ilr.
Tht Keu , .
oh, irw
Eie fair -II
I make
for a little
AM f a.
(lost ,
Jit are n
'ome mi
T with t
"I lOVfil 'I
yuui .
tn. dear.
Hire,
the I.,
J He can
We Mere
r thl, f
vain
I look
vis to keep.
'U't'P
i.l hold
I lit' old
are Mown
- fur Its own,
' eyes Hint look
re forsook)
I KlllllO
'.lie,
' r days
ng the ways
rlillilhonil's) should,
'atlve mood,
t no lunger lisping tongue.
' little things when I was
t of Hose O'Neill,
steal
dm gain
ii little work not ddnn lr
BfcarMfc''M.iirr2jB
JkiKiKBHH
jv -HililwiiHBs3iB'
iHhI . !9Hi.. : i" WxJrHH 1 ML A
Thurlnglan forest In the northern part
of the country. The places themselves
look exactly as I knew they would,
having read my Grimm's fairy tales
with zeal. We a very benign, superior,
dignified personage who Is the manager,
a sample Kewple and myself motored
from one to another. Incidentally the
Qprnian workmen, who arc dear peoplo
and not without u sense of humor, called
this trio of ours the holy family, I
don't know whether that is Irreligious
or not. It didn't seem so there, for
they said It so respectfully.
"Men, women and children make the
Kewples and In each factory I modelled
one myself. Some of these quaint work
people, whose ancestors have been en
gaged for centuries In making toys and
who have acquired In consequence by
Inheritance certain elfish traits, Just as
the Oberammergau peasants have In
herited the religious characteristics,
i look a little bit like my dear Kewples
ii nil they alt love them and speak of
them as If they were real truly people.
"Sometimes in my far away Mis
souri home, which I call Honnlebrook,
or on the top of a skyscraper studio
building here In New York I shut my
eyes and see the smoke curling out of
the chimneys of those little ThlirltiKlan
cottages, the charcoal men, the wood
cutters, the toymakers coming homo
from their dally work, or possibly put
ting a final smirk to a Kewple face In
their homes. I sec Kewples playing
hide and seek among the wonderful
trees of the forest; I see them playing
tricks on the tourist pedestrians nnd
then I wake up with nothing tangible
to remind me of my fat little Kewples."
"Except possibly n fat check," Inter
polates the Interviewer.
"Exactly!"
Don't think that you can dismiss Rosh
O'Neill, who has been called the most
successful woman artist of the day,
with Uie Idea that her work Is of the
Kewple order entirely. To n great many
people she Is the creator of these little
folk and that Is all. To an equally
large number her name evokes memories
of Illustrations In magazines. American
and English Interesting, subtle, tech
nically correct drawings which divldo
the popularity of the written talP, often
with the lion's share of attention to the
credit of the artist.
Again, speak of Hose O'Neill nnd you
will hear of Salon exhibits which were
photographed and rephotographed until
the subjects are familiar everywhere.
"Paolo and Francesco" nnd "The Pic
tures of the Soul" are two of them, nnd
a third painting the finishing touches of
which are being put on here In New
York ranks with them In depicting
strange, aloof imaginings which she
keeps carefully hidden from everyday
folk nnd which only show tiny hints
when she croons some Celtic melody or
some of her own song compositions In
which she has suggested the Irish folk
songs admirably. She says of herself
that "she has a "crepuscular mind," one
that dwells In the twilight nnd finds
there strange, beautiful, terrible, ex
quisite pictures.
"The Cave Woman," her last painting,
"smites the eye," to use her own ex
pression. Springing toward the light
from the depths of woodland gloom, this
strange creature, half beast, half
woman, with fangs for teeth, a hairy
body und crude, semi-formed features,
has written In her face the struggle of
the soul's birth and on the wrinkled,
rough cheek are two tears, wrung from
that agony. What was It? The death
of a first born? Possibly. "Who can
tell," says Miss O'Neill, "when that first,
frightful birth of the 'soul took place?
I see It dimly In that Corotllke land
scape of mine In which the dreams
come, but I cannot tell the origin."
"For ten years," says Arsvne Alex
andre, critic of the rtunro, "I have
been running to catch up with Miss
O'Neill." During thnt time he has
written her scores of letters, Insistent
as the Kewple letters of the children
and like them demanding that she
progress further In the exploitation of
her art. At last she has consented and
Is now on her way to Paris, where
specimens of nil her versatile art will
be shown drawings and models of
Kewps, weird canvas subjects, Illustra
tions which will Include the drawings
for her last book.
Sho calls particular attention to an
exhibit called "Tho Tiger." It was In
spired by the play of that name by
Witter Itynner, first published In the
Vorum, then staged for a nhort time.
It belonged to the rubber band class of
drama, of which last season was filled,
being pulled on and oft suddenly.
The painting shows a curtained al
cove, the tiger watching with Its claws
on the henp of gold and, presumably
Inside, the tiger woman about whom
tho play was written. In relation to
this picture, tho author of the play
wrote this couplet Inspired by tho ver
satility of Mlstf O'Neill:
Tiger, tiger, how do you do?
Did she who niado the Kewps, make you?,
U j ? zzzrHJ
-
'
;aj! IBflj&yhft ' jjlS jjtjjtjfS
KHfeH HjMfmlHMB
Some examples of the joy-giving Kewps. They look at you with a mixture of humor and sympathetic understanding and all at once you laugh.